Featured Research

"Mugspot" Can Find A Face In The Crowd -- Face-Recognition Software Prepares To Go To Work In The Streets

Date:

November 12, 1997

Source:

University Of Southern California

Summary:

Computer "eyes" are now up to such tasks as watching for fugitives in airline terminals and other busy locations. A sophisticated face-recognition system that placed first in recent Army competitive trials has been given the added ability to pick out faces in noisy or chaotic "street" environments.

Share This

Computer "eyes" are now up to such tasks as watching for fugitives in airline terminals and other busy locations. A sophisticated face-recognition system that placed first in recent Army competitive trials has been given the added ability to pick out faces in noisy or chaotic "street" environments.

Related Articles

The new "Mugspot" software module developed at the University of Southern California automatically analyzes video images, looking for passers-by. When it finds them, it picks out the heads in the images and then tracks the heads for as long as they remain in the camera's field.

Throughout this tracking process, the software is watching for the best possible view of the subject's face -- the one that shows him or her looking most directly at the camera. It selects the best view presented and passes it on to the main face-recognition program.

This face-recognition software, developed at USC and the University of Bochum, Germany, and now in commercial use for clients such as Germany's Deutsche Bank, is robust enough to make identifications from less-than-perfect face views. It can also often see through such impediments to identification as mustaches, beards, changed hair styles and glasses -- even sunglasses.

"Until now," says Christoph von der Malsburg, the computer scientist and brain theorist who developed the system, "face- recognition software has needed to have the raw material, the images of faces, given to it in a highly structured form: a clear still photograph of a subject looking right at the camera.

"Our existing system is able to make identifications even with substandard images. With the addition of the 'Mugspot' video processing system, which expands its ability to capture images, I think it will prove useful in many real-life situations, particularly in law enforcement," says Dr. von der Malsburg, a professor in the USC School of Engineering's department of computer science.

The Mugspot system can scan eight video frames per second in real time, and takes about 13 seconds to select the best view, process it for identification, compare it to the several hundred faces in its memory and decide whether it has found a match.

The three research associates who developed Mugspot with von der Malsburg -- USC graduate student Egor Elagin, postdoctoral researcher Hartmut Neven and Bochum University visiting graduate student Johannes Steffens -- believe further refinement of the system can shorten that time by half.

Mugspot is only the latest improvement in the USC/Bochum face recognition software, developed with funds from the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and marketed commercially in Europe under the trade-name ZN-Face.

In tabulations released Aug. 19 by the ARL, the USC/Bochum system outperformed competitors from laboratories across the country including MIT, the University of Maryland, Rutgers, Michigan State University and three systems developed by the Army itself.

The labs were ranked according to their performance on each of 12 separate runs, from 1 (best) to 12 (worst). The USC/Bochum system recorded six first, three seconds and two thirds, for a total of 18. The next best score was 24 -- a tie between MIT and the University of Maryland.

The USC/Bochum system also shone in tests conducted under substandard lighting conditions: It lost only a small fraction of its accuracy, while competitors showed drastic falloffs in less- than-brilliant illumination.

The USC/Bochum system uses an unusual approach that mimics the technique scientists believe the brain uses to recognize images. Von der Malsburg, whose principal research interests lie in the investigation of living brains, in fact carried out much of the original research on the system as part of an attempt to understand human face recognition. His research led to creating a computer model of the way the brain's visual cortex processes information.

University Of Southern California. ""Mugspot" Can Find A Face In The Crowd -- Face-Recognition Software Prepares To Go To Work In The Streets." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 November 1997. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/11/971112070100.htm>.

University Of Southern California. (1997, November 12). "Mugspot" Can Find A Face In The Crowd -- Face-Recognition Software Prepares To Go To Work In The Streets. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 31, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/11/971112070100.htm

University Of Southern California. ""Mugspot" Can Find A Face In The Crowd -- Face-Recognition Software Prepares To Go To Work In The Streets." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/11/971112070100.htm (accessed March 31, 2015).

Mar. 31, 2015 — Video games not only sharpen the visual processing skills of frequent players, they might also improve the brain's ability to learn those skills, according to a new study. Gamers showed faster ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Children who play video games for more than three hours a day are more likely to be hyperactive, get involved in fights and not be interested in school, says a new study. It examined the effects of ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Using the assessment tool ForWarn, US Forest Service researchers can monitor the growth and development of vegetation that signals winter's end and the awakening of a new growing season. Now these ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — A team of engineers and biologists reports new progress in using computer modeling and 3D shape analysis to understand how the unique grasping tails of seahorses evolved. These prehensile tails ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Searching the Internet for information may make people feel smarter than they actually are, according to new research. In a series of experiments, participants who searched for information on the ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — Neuroscientists are taking inspiration from natural motor control to design new prosthetic devices that can better replace limb function. Researchers have tested a range of brain-controlled devices ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — Speaking in public is the top fear for many people. Now, researchers have developed an intelligent user interface for 'smart glasses' that gives real-time feedback to the speaker on volume modulation ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — To help scientists make sense of 'brain big data,' researchers have used data mining to create www.neuroelectro.org, a publicly available website that acts like Wikipedia, indexing physiological ... full story

Bionic Ants Could Be Tomorrow's Factory Workers

Reuters - Innovations Video Online (Mar. 30, 2015) — Industrious 3D printed bionic ants working together could toil in the factories of the future, says German technology company Festo. The robotic insects cooperate and coordinate their actions and movements to achieve a common aim. Amy Pollock reports.
Video provided by Reuters

Internet Giants Drive Into the Electric Vehicle Space

Reuters - Business Video Online (Mar. 30, 2015) — Internet companies are looking to disrupt the auto industry with new smart e-vehicles, but widespread adoption in Asia may not be cured by new Chinese investments. Pamela Ambler reports.
Video provided by Reuters

Talking Dinosaur Toy Has All The Answers

Rooftop Comedy (Mar. 29, 2015) — A company has invented a new toy that can have an entire conversation with kids. It’s called CogniToy, and it’s a plastic dinosaur that is powered by IBM’s super computer, Watson. So, it basically knows the answer to every question, and can even tell jokes, stories, and remember things. Parents – would you buy CogniToy?
Video provided by Rooftop Comedy

Related Stories

Sep. 16, 2014 — Face recognition software measures various parameters in a mug shot, such as the distance between the person's eyes, the height from lip to top of their nose and various other metrics and then ... full story

June 24, 2014 — Forgotten passwords are a serious problem for both IT managers and users. The root of the problem is a trade-off between memorability and security: simple passwords are easy to remember but easy to ... full story

June 10, 2014 — Faces fascinate. We look for familiar or friendly ones in a crowd. And video game developers and movie animators strive to create faces that look real rather than fake. Determining how our brains ... full story

Aug. 11, 2011 — Face recognition software of the kind incorporated into biometric identification tools, photo-gallery applications and social media websites can be very useful, but it also raises privacy concerns ... full story

July 28, 2010 — Researchers are trying to understand the mechanisms at work in the face area of the brain called the "fusiform gyrus" by combining cognitive psychology with techniques like brain imaging ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.